Benjamin Whorf Quotations

Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.

At the same time, new concepts and abstractions flow into the picture, taking up the task of describing the universe without reference to such time or space - abstractions for which our language lacks adequate terms.

Most metaphysical words in Hopi are verbs, not nouns as in European languages.

But in due course it became evident that not only a physical situation qua physics, but the meaning of that situation to people, was sometimes a factor, through the behavior of people, in the start of a fire.

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language.

My analysis was directed toward purely physical conditions, such as defective wiring, presence of lack of air spaces between metal flues and woodwork, etc., and the results were presented in these terms.

Too long has the public mind considered religion to be synonymous with priestcraft.

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language. Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.